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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2013 <\/span>Litigation between Google and the Authors Guild that has been ongoing since 2005 has resulted in a win for Google and university libraries, including Purdue University Libraries.\u00a0 On November 14, 2013, Judge Denny Chin found in favor of Google and dismissed the lawsuit brought against them by the Authors Guild.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Google Book Project began in 2004 with Google entering into agreements with Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan, New York Public Library and Oxford to scan books in their libraries.\u00a0 As part of the agreement, participants in the project received a digital copy of the book. \u00a0Google created a database of the scanned works but only allowed snippets of works still protected by copyright to be viewed.\u00a0 Full text access was only available to works in the public domain.\u00a0 Over the years, many other universities, including Purdue, joined the Google Book Project. To date Google has scanned over twenty million books. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The Authors Guild as the representative for many authors sued Google for copyright infringement.\u00a0 Google has maintained that their scanning and posting of the works was fair use under the U.S. Copyright Act. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Judge Denny Chin agreed with Google.\u00a0 According to the Court, the use of the work was transformative, which is one of the factors considered under fair use.\u00a0 Chin stated that \u201cGoogle Books digitizes books and transforms expressive text into a comprehensive word index that helps readers, scholars, researchers, and others find books.\u201d Another factor that the Court looked closely at was the market effect and whether or not it was harmed by Google\u2019s actions.\u00a0 Chin determined that the Google Books Project in fact expanded the market for books by helping the public discover books that they would never have known about but for Google.\u00a0 Judge Chin also referred quite extensively to a recent decision in the HathiTrust v. Authors Guild lawsuit in which HathiTrust won on similar fair use principles and application of U.S. Copyright law.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>HathiTrust is a partnership of major research universities and libraries that is focused on preserving collections in digital form to allow access to the works for future generations.\u00a0 Both legal victories are recognition that the digital world offers new and exciting opportunities to researchers and scholars and that the copyright law should be applied to new uses of works in a way that is consistent with the built in flexibility of the law and the intent of the Copyright Clause of the U.S. Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is a significant victory for libraries as well.\u00a0 In the opinion, Chin noted that Google provides libraries with a digital copy of works that they already own which allow libraries to make lawful uses of the digitized copies consistent with the copyright law.\u00a0 The Court found that such use is fair use and that the libraries would have no liability for copyright infringement.\u00a0 This is good news for many libraries, like Purdue, who have digitization projects either in progress or under consideration.\u00a0 The Google win allows such projects to proceed and provides greater access and research capabilities to not only library collections held at Purdue but to many collections around the world.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not surprisingly the Authors Guild was not pleased with the decision and have indicated that they will appeal it to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The University Copyright Office was established in 2000 to advise Purdue University faculty and staff on the application of copyright law in a higher education setting and to provide information on current copyright issues. The Office also provides programs to promote compliance and awareness.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For further information about copyright or to set up an appointment, please contact the office at 765.496.3864 or Donna Ferullo<\/a>, Director, at ferullo@purdue.edu<\/a>. The Office is located in Stewart Center, Room 264A.<\/span><\/p>\n Source:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n